Littleton shot maker cost?

[PatMarlin]

I think you guys are all wasting your time when you can log on and buy this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:B:SS:US:1123


. . . . ......

[Three44s]

Shucks ...... a GROSS of those Please!!!! ........... LOL!

Randyrat,

A thought occured to me ...... how about a lid to retain heat?

Three 44s

[PatMarlin]

Well may not be a bad idea since it's so cold up there. And I know it is casuse I just talked to my mom #2 up in Edwall and she said it's been cold, froze, with 6' snow drifts alone..

It's 22 here right now..

Could set a peice of plate steel over your rig.

[randyrat]

Shucks ...... a GROSS of those Please!!!! ........... LOL!

Randyrat,

A thought occured to me ...... how about a lid to retain heat?

Three 44s

Yeh, i tried the lid already. Still i need to make another one that has less iron on it. The new one is actually almost built, it's smaller,less iron,less nozzles, one i can run in this cold weather. I just can't get enough heat to the one i have. Rather than figure out more heat, i'll just build another one to match the heat i have. This dang weather, tomorrow the high is only 3 above, so it's going to slow this project down a little. The new pot is a 6" C channel instead of 8" and i'm only going 3 nozzles. I will get the hang of three then i can always go bigger if i want later.

[7BRU]

hi randyrat. about how many pounds of shot do you think u could make per hour with a 3 nozzle job.

BRU

[jackley]

My shot maker is up and running. Making fine #8 shot. I made it like the one that is a few post back. Welded up a 9X12 ladle made the drippers from 3/8" bolts back
drilled them 3/16" till the drill was making a dimple on the head side. Then used a .020 drill in a dremel tool to drill them the rest of the way through the bolt. The hole in the
dripper is 5/8" from the ledge that is angled alittle more then 90 degrees from drippers.
The ledge is polished and rubbed with soap stone. Then the shot falls 3/8" into anti
freeze. The level in the anti freeze is kept from rising with the shot going into it by
2 brass fittings. These flow into a container under it. The bottom container has a
small pump in it that recirculates the coolant back into the coolant container so it
doesn't get to hot. There is a petcock in the bottom of coolant container to drain
coolant and empty the shot. The containers for coolant are made from gerry cans.
The burner is propane and I used one from a turkey cooker plenty of heat. To much
at first had to turn the flame down. The burner can be taken out with ease and is
back on the turkey cooker/lead melter now. The burner is hot. One other thing
that I did that I have head of no one else doing is making a vibrator and bolting
it on the shot maker frame work, seems to make it work alot better with alot
less plug ups. Even though I'm retired and my time isn't worth what it once was
I see everybody wants to know how much shot you can make an hour, with 8
drippers running and real clean lead so no plug ups you can get about 75 lbs an
hour. Hope this help someone J Ackley

[PatMarlin]

Welcome to cast boolit heaven... J with the famous last name...

Clever idea on the vibrator, and the dremel dimple technique. We like pictures..

[7BRU]

have u got a digital camera. i really like pictures. lots of us would like to see it.
thank you.

BRU

[jackley]

The burner is mounted on the center frame work and is adjustable. As is just about
everything here. There is a learning curve here, and the 1st few batches were junk.
Not enough heat, to much heat soft lead, shot falling to far, not far enough. and so
on. The ladle tips back so you can shut down if needed. the red can holds the coolant (antifreeze). The green can is about 1/2 full of coolant and pumps it back to the top container to keep the antifreeze from getting to hot. I found that if you rinse your shot at about every 25 lbs it takes
alot less time to clean for some reason. I made a drying screen from window screen and hardware cloth. I made a little cement mixer from the 12 motor that went to my old 10' satelite
dish and a 1 1/2 gallon bucket and some old casters to coat the shot with. (Its been a long winter) less than a teaspoon per 25 lbs. Now to the pics. I have an old Sony
camera that uses floppy disc but even with a new batt. it says batt low so these are
the only pics if I can get them loaded today. The one pic is of the vibrator its an old
fan motor with a nut off center on it.

[7BRU]

nice job

thanks.

BRU

[Three44s]

What's in a name? ......... Well here it speaks VOLUMES!!

Welcome to Boolits ............ J ...... Ackley!

Fine job on your shot maker!

BUT I just gotta ask ................ Where does one get one of those "hood ornaments" that adorns your driveway at the corner of the garage??????

I would say around these parts ......... HOME BURGARLERS .............. BEWARE!

(Time for the BIG ONE!)

Regards

Three 44s

[jackley]

3 44s
Now that took along time to build the mold to pour that.
Jerry

[jackley]

Finally got to shoot some of the shot I made. I would say I get about 90% good #8 shot and with the footballs pancakes and whiskers I see no difference in the way it shoots over #8 magnum shot. Even shooting from the 25 yard line. Shot 49 of 50 there and 98 out of 100 at the 16 yard line. With a little more practice making the shot my quality of shot will improve also. Just
cast another 200 lbs. wheel weights into ingots so when it warms up a little I'll be ready to drop
shot.
Jerry

[chrisx1]

Great job on your shotmaker Jerry!!

Have you found any difference in dropping shot in colder weather? I was having trouble the other day, but it was about 10 degrees out. I wondered if the temp had anything to do with it.

[jackley]

chrisx1
Its been cold here for awhile but in the shop where I'm dropping the shot I don't think it ever
gets below 65 degrees. So I haven't dropped any in colder temps but I have read some where
that it doesn't do so well in colder temps.

Jerry

[randyrat]

I can't get mine to drop anything but BLOBs of lead in the temps around here. i have to wait for warmer temps. Does your lip come straight out from the laddle or is it tilted down at an angle from the base of the laddle and what is the height of the nozzles from the lip.

[jackley]

randyray
I was having that trouble. I then tilted my ladle alittle more to around 20 degrees and added more lead so there would be more pressure coming out the drippers. The lip is at alittle more of an angle. The distance from nozzle to lip is about an inch, I stared out at 3\8". I also found that the lip has to be polished and coated with soapstone or the lead will stick to it and make blobs. With the propane burner if the lip gets to hot the lead sticks to it ,so a heat sink was added to the lip. When using the shot maker if the shot starts sticking to the lip I scrub the lip with soapstone and that stops the sticking and shot starts rolling again. Using lead softer then wheel weights will make big globs, I tried pure lead and you couldn't have gotten those things to go down a 12 ga. muzzleloaders barrel let alone get into a 12 ga. hull. Good luck Jerry

[RaymondMillbrae]

cOOL THREAD.

aNY CURRENT PICTURES OR COMMENTS?

dI THE EXPERIMENT FINALLY WORK, OR WAS IT A FEW DAYS OUT OF YOUR LIVES THAT YOU WILL NEVER GET BACK?

iN cHRIST: rAYMOND

PS: Darn CapS lOCKS!

[Fat-beeman]

I have a factory shot maker I don't use any more will trade for gas chyeck makers or 243 mold.
need 30 cal 22 cal 8 mm 35 cal gas check maker.
Don
used in very little less then 25#

[scrapcan]

fat-beeman,

anything else you would trade for? I have no gas check makers or 243 mould. But might have something else. Maybe cash trade.

Let me know.